Holding the Music in Your Hands ®
Happy Birthday Tin Machine.
The eponymous debut from David Bowie‘s 1989 ‘no-bullshit’ band, was released 23 years ago today and remains one of his most underrated albums. It is often forgotten that initially the record was well-received by a fair proportion of the media – Q Magazine gave it four stars. Derision came later.
Continue reading “Coming up for air: “Tin Machine” is 23″
Out today in the US, we give you Paul and Linda McCartney‘s RAM Deluxe Box Set. Extensive photo gallery below. Full review of this set later in this week. Let us have your thoughts on what you see!
You can order this lovely item here
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Click here for further photos or click ‘2’ above!
Bad 25 – the anniversary reissue of Michael Jackson’s Bad album – will be reissued on 18 September 2012 (likely to be 17 September outside the US).
Continue reading “Michael Jackson / Bad 25 reissue: formats, date of release and prices”
Sony kicked-off their marketing campaign for the 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s Bad album (Bad 25) at the weekend by encouraging twitter fans to add the “whosbad” hashtag to their tweets.
Continue reading “Sony kick-off Michael Jackson “Bad” 25th Anniversay reissue campaign”
“Hell, I never said I was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll… I said simply that I’m the BEST!”
Jerry Lee Lewis has never been the modest type, but listening to this new four-disc box set from Salvo Music is a great reminder of just how good ‘The Killer’ was at his peak.
Continue reading “A Whole Lotta Jerry Lee Lewis / 4-Disc retrospective box”
ABBA were due to release The Essential Collection on 21 May, a new collection of ABBA
hits and other classic tracks. However, this has now been pushed back to the autumn, with amazon.co.uk currently showing 3 September as a release date.
The set will come in three different configurations: a double-CD, a DVD, and a limited edition package featuring the two CDs, the DVD and an illustrated 28-page booklet. The DVD features all official ABBA promo clips in remastered form, including two previously
unreleased videos: Conociéndome, Conociéndote and Gracias por la música (Spanish versions of Knowing Me, Knowing You and Thank You For The Music, respectively).
Full track listings below:
Continue reading “ABBA / The Essential Collection 2CD+DVD set delayed”
Some great behind-the-scenes footage from when David Gilmour guested at Roger Waters’ The Wall gig at the 02 Arena in May last year. Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason is also present.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8ZI1-l25E
CD singles, remember them? Introduced to the public in 1986, they soon superseded the humble cassette single as the format of choice during the 1990s.
This is part two of our look back at the wonderful world of CD single packaging in the 1980s and 1990s. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to first check out part one here.
So, once again, we dig into the SuperDeluxeEdition archive and take a look at some wonderful formats and packaging, utilised for the CD single. All CDs are UK releases, unless otherwise specified (click on photos to enlarge).
Peter Gabriel / Big Time / 1987
The third single from Peter Gabriel‘s massive So album, came in a very glossy gatefold card sleeve, with a generous five tracks, including an extended version of the title track. The lyric is printed inside the gatefold and the whole design is consistent with the So branding.
Duran Duran / None Of The Above / 1994
A Japan-only CD single from Duran Duran‘s ‘Wedding Album’. This style of release is known as ‘Tanzaku’ in Japan and is sometimes referred to as a ‘snap pack’ because you can literally snap it in half and discard the bottom section. It features the three-inch format that the Japanese had pioneered in the late eighties, complete with advertisement for Honda Integra!! The extended mix of None Of The Above was exclusive to this release until the White Lines single in 1995 (where it appeared as a bonus track) and the single edit remains unique.
Duffy / Sugar High / 1995
Stephen – once “Tin Tin” – Duffy was always messing around with his name, and after his amazing Music In Colours album in 1993, he dropped the “Stephen” to become just “Duffy” and released an album of the same name in 1995. Funnily enough, Neil and Tim Finn did exactly the same thing in the same year, when they teamed up for an album together as “Finn”. But I digress. On Indolent records at the time, ‘Duffy’ released three singles in these very attractive card sleeves, with some great art direction. Sugar High was single number two, with London Girls preceding it and Needle Mythology as the follow-up. The CDs sat on a centre spindle embedded in the right hand gatefold panel.
Eurythmics / You Have Place A Chill In My Heart / 1988
The last single from the Savage album, You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart came in a black circular tin box, with the title embossed on the lid. Must have been pricey to produce, but then again record companies had money to burn in those days. The previous single I Need A Man also came in a very similar tin, but it was normal tin ‘colour’ and hasn’t stood the test of time as well as the one above (ours is rusty).
Paul McCartney / C’Mon People / 1993
The second (and final) single from McCartney’s Off The Ground album came in a plastic framed cardboard sleeve-pack. If you look closely at the pictures you will see a plastic tab on the right that ‘secures’ the lid in place. There were a few variations of this kind of sleeve in the early to mid-nineties. The disc itself also has the artwork on display.
Terence Trent D’Arby / This Side Of Love / 1989
There was always something quite luxurious about single releases ‘borrowing’ the album jewel case for their packaging needs. So much nicer than the slimline jewel cases, which were, of course, the norm for singles. Terence Trent D’Arby actually released two This Side Of Love CD singles. TRENT C5 (above) was the standard release with an ‘extended version’ of the single and TRENT P5 a picture disc CD which had a different “12-inch Remix” version. Both came in the album-style jewel cases.
Electronic / Getting Away With It / 1989
This is actually the US ‘maxi-single’ from the Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr outfit. It has a white sleeve (different from the UK dark brown) and the CD is held within a plastic slip-case which slides into the card sleeve. Not an altogether successful design. It’s hard getting used to up-and-down when you are used to left-and-right!
Crowded House / Locked Out / 1993
A massive five singles were taken from the sublime Together Alone album in the UK and all went top 30. Locked Out was single number three, and like all the others (except final single Pineapple Head) it came in double digi-pak where you could hold ‘disc two’, should you decide to purchase. Normally lots of live versions of tracks would tempt the loyal fans.
Jellyfish / I Wanna Stay Home / 1990
The Baby’s Coming Back single from Jellyfish’s Bellybutton album came in a limted edition ‘nappy’ (i.e. diaper) sleeve, and this final single was proudly called a ‘3D CD Pack’ and came with the old-style 3D glasses. Put them to your eyes and simply look at the pictures on the left and right panels and enjoy the ‘power’ of 3D! Having tested this recently I can confirm it doesn’t rival Avatar as a 3D experience.
The 1979 film Quadrophenia, based of course on The Who’s classic rock opera, gets a director-approved Blu-ray release in the US on 28 August from movie connoisseurs The Criterion Collection.
Continue reading “Quadrophenia Blu-ray release sees new 5.1 mix approved by The Who”
The beginning of June sees an incredible amount of high profile reissues and releases from major artists, including David Bowie, Neil Young, Paul Simon and The Beatles.
Continue reading “Record release bonanza in June”
Paul Young‘s back catalogue has been reissued by a number of record labels, with varying degrees of success.
Sony kept hold of 1983 debut No Parlez for a reasonable 2CD deluxe reissue in 2008, although they somehow managed to omit the extended version of Sex that had actually appeared on the original non-deluxe CD release and a few of the album tracks were slight edits of the original LP versions.
Continue reading “Paul Young / Other Voices 2CD Deluxe Edition review”
The Doors will “almost certainly” release a digital version of a three-CD L.A. Woman outtake set sometime this year, according to manager Jeff Jampol, but an actual physical set is uncertain at this time.
“As soon as I have a definite release commitment and date, you’ll know” is the official line from Jampol, who was forced to make a U-turn on his promise to fans of a five-disc super deluxe edition of L.A. Woman last autumn.
Continue reading “The Doors / Physical release of L.A. Woman outtakes set in the balance”
As previously reported, Swing Out Sister will be reissuing their 1987 debut It’s Better To Travel this year as a two-disc 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.
This expanded reissue is now available to pre-order
Continue reading “Swing Out Sister reissue: a complete a waste of space?”
Duran Duran‘s Rio album is 30 years old today. To celebrate, here is the fabulous acoustic version of album track The Chauffeur. It was originally the B-side to the Rio seven-inch single and has made CD appearances on one of the Come Undone US CD Singles, as part of The Singles 81-85 box set/3CD release and most recently on the 2009 2CD Rio Deluxe Edition.
CD singles, remember them? Introduced to the public in 1986, they soon superseded the humble cassette single as the format of choice during the 1990s.
Indeed, such was the popularity of the format (particularly in the UK), that record labels started releasing multiple CDs for each single release. “CD two out next week” was all too familiar.
Continue reading “The Art of CD Single Packaging”
Concert Live the specialist at producing limited edition live CDs of gigs will be recording the Happy Mondays Brixton Academy (London) show tomorrow night (10 May, 2012).
The entire live show will be recorded, featuring the full original line up.
If you are lucky enough to be attending, the CDs will be made available instantly at the venue, right after the band finish performing. The price at the venue will be £20.
If not, you can order online for £15 (double disc set). Concert Live will deliver worldwide. These CDs will be limited, although it is not stated how many will be produced.
Duran Duran are set to release a live DVD, Blu-ray and CD to commemorate their successful All You Need Is Now tour.
Out on 2 July 2012 through Eagle Vision and Eagle Records, A Diamond In The Mind was filmed and recorded at Manchester’s MEN Arena in December of last year, where the band garnered some of the finest reviews of their career.
Continue reading “Duran Duran / “A Diamond In The Mind” / Live In Concert 2011″
Lenny Kravitz‘s 1991 album, Mama Said, has been remastered and expanded and will be reissued on 5 June in the US and 4 June everywhere else by Virgin/EMI. The 2CD reissue adds 21 bonus tracks to the album, including 15 previously unreleased recordings (see track listing below).
Mama Said was the follow-up to 1989 debut Let Love Rule and featured the hit singles Always On The Run and It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over.
As well as originally released B-sides, the bonus material includes several unfinished songs from the Mama Said album sessions, home demos, and two unreleased remixes of It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over.
Pre-order here
Full track listing below:
Continue reading “Lenny Kravitz / Mama Said Reissue”
Propaganda‘s 1985 album A Secret Wish was swiftly followed up later that same year with Wishful Thinking, an eight-track remix album featuring reworked versions of many tracks including singles Duel and Dr. Mabuse.
A Secret Wish was reissued in 2010 as a 2CD Deluxe Edition (number 11 in ZTT’s element series) and June 2012 sees the release of Wishful Thinking from ZTT/Salvo in the form of an expanded one CD remaster (number 23 in ZTT’s element series).
The reissue features six bonus tracks (five previously unreleased) details below:
